


Broken circle

by killerweasel



Series: Broken Circle [1]
Category: Angel: the Series, Cabin Pressure
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-05-06
Packaged: 2017-12-10 14:08:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/786918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killerweasel/pseuds/killerweasel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A rescue comes from a very unlikely source.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken circle

Title: Broken circle  
Fandom: _Angel/Cabin Pressure_  
Characters: Lindsey McDonald, Arthur Shappey, Martin Crieff, Marcus Hamilton  
Word Count: 2,027  
Rating: PG-13  
A/N: AU after _Angel's Not Fade Away_  
Warnings: n/a  
Summary: A rescue comes from a very unlikely source.

Everything hurt. I groaned as I opened my eyes. The air felt cool on my skin so I knew I was no longer in one of Wolfram and Hart’s special hells. My right shoulder was in agony. It took me a moment to remember that’s where the demon had stabbed me moments before. The knife hadn’t come with me and neither had the demon.

I wasn’t wearing anything, but that wasn’t really a surprise. Clothing gets in the way when you’re punishing someone for trying to break a contract they’d foolishly signed when they were young and had very different views about what was right and wrong.

“Excuse me? Sir? Are you okay? You’re bleeding. Did you hurt yourself when you arrived?” There was a sharp intake of breath. “And you’re naked!” The last word was said in one of those loud whispers everyone and their cousin would be able to hear.

A face dropped into view. He was younger than me and seemed more curious than afraid. I was willing to bet he was the one responsible for my being here, though he’d probably done it by accident. He stared at me for a moment before giving me a grin.

“I’m Arthur, steward of the airplane.” Arthur started to stick his hand out, glanced down at the circle I was sitting in and dropped it back to his side instead. “Am I allowed to shake your hand? I’m not really sure what I did or how any of this works. It was so brilliant. I said those squiggly words and then there was a flash so bright I could see the inside of my eyeballs. GERTI, that’s the plane, she dropped out of the sky for a moment. I could hear Douglas and Skip hollering in the cockpit while they tried to fix things. When I could see again, you were here. It’s a good thing Mum stayed home with Herc. She’d be furious you just showed up like that.”

My eyebrows rose slightly. I’d always been told I had the gift of gab, but I apparently had nothing on Arthur. I was dealing with a small airline, more than likely a charter one. Arthur must have been the only crew member because no one else had come over to take a look at the random naked guy. I wondered what the pilot and co-pilot were going to think about all this. Since neither of them had popped in yet, they must still be dealing with whatever mess the summoning had made with the instruments. We were lucky to still be in the air.

I sat up slowly, hissing in pain as my wounded shoulder pulled. “Nice to meet you, Arthur. I’m Lindsey.” The smile I gave him made his own grin even larger. “When you said you read squiggly words, what were you talking about?” If he could give me a better idea of what he’d done, I would be able to figure out what went wrong. I highly doubted I’d been what he was trying to bring through from a hell dimension.

“We flew a bunch of really weird guys to Cleveland last week. One of them must have dropped this.” Arthur pulled a small book out of his pocket. “The cover is so neat. Look at that little monster. I love monster movies, don’t you? I showed this to Skip and he said he thought the cover was made out of leather, like shoes. Isn’t that silly, a book made out of a shoe?”

I decided not to tell him I thought the book was bound in human skin because he’d get upset. The cover looked very familiar. He leaned in a little closer and I felt the blood drain from my face. Arthur must have noticed because he gave me a worried look.

“What’s wrong?”

“That’s a very special book, Arthur. There are only three of them in the world.” Only the Junior Partners at the branches of Wolfram and Hart could have access to them. “Let me guess, you picked one of the pages with the best picture and then drew it on the floor because you were bored?” He nodded. “And then you tried saying the words as best as you could, but it was hard because you’ve never really seen words like that before?” Another nod. “What did you use to make the circle and the symbols?” Usually these things called for blood. A substitution would change the end result.

“I used some of Douglas’ brown sauce because we didn’t have any ketchup. The circle in here is red. See?” He flipped to the pages he was talking about, holding it out as close to the circle as he could. “These are the words I said”

“Don’t say them again.” He jerked back from me. “What I mean is there’s not enough room in this circle for someone else.” If he managed to summon far more dangerous than I was, we’d all be in very deep trouble.

We were interrupted by the cabin door flying open. A guy with ginger hair came running over. He stared at me for a moment. His mouth opened and shut a few times without any sound coming out. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. When he opened them again and saw I was still there, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Arthur, what did you do? I thought we’d been hit by lightning, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Everything seems to be working properly at the moment, so I gave Douglas control.”

“I think I can explain what happened, Captain.”

“Did you just call me Captain?” He looked a bit surprised. “Erm... I’m Captain Martin Crieff. I take it you have a better idea of what happened than Arthur? And why aren’t you wearing anything? This is a bit awkward.”

“I’m Lindsey McDonald. I used to be a Wolfram and Hart lawyer.” The mention of my old firm made Martin’s eyes widen. “A little while ago, there was an incident in Los Angeles. I got killed.” I gestured towards the scars from the bullet wounds in my chest. “After I died, I found myself in a not nice place. I’ve been there ever since, occasionally being called up to the surface to assist with some cases as needed. It was all part of the contract.”

Stretching my arm out, I placed it against the edge of the circle. Even leaning forward with everything I had didn’t make it budge. “Arthur found a book he shouldn’t be fooling around with. This circle I’m sitting in, you use one of these to pull someone or something out of a place like I was. Once the circle is broken, I’m free. I can’t break it myself and I don’t blame you for not wanting to do it either. If some random guy showed up naked in my plane, I’d be a little wary of letting him loose too. Or maybe I’d just have the police deal with it. This is your plane. You do what you feel is right, Captain.”

“So what you’re saying is Arthur somehow managed to accidentally pull you out of some sort of hell and brought you here.” The words sounded insane. Martin bit his lip. “While I don’t own this plane personally, I am in charge of it. The safety of the crew is my responsibility. I need to know if you’re dangerous or if you think anything bad is going to happen as a result of your being here.”

Wolfram and Hart would know by now that I’d been pulled free. They would also know what book had been used. The Senior Partners would not be amused that one of their employees had lost such a powerful book. If there was a problem, there was a bargaining chip I could use. It wouldn’t be difficult for them to bring the plane down or make the whole thing disappear. It wasn’t like they hadn’t had similar incidents in the past. If they could level Atlantis, a small plane was nothing. But if they destroyed the plane, they’d lose the book.

“Skip, can you feel that?” Arthur rubbed his hand on his arm. “It’s like when you take a balloon and rub it on your hair. Then your hair gets all sticky-uppy. Only this is everywhere, not just on my head.”

“Martin, I mean Captain, I need you to break the circle right now. They’re sending someone through.” I could feel it now too. There was some serious magic at work. The last time I’d felt something like this was when the Partners had grabbed me in the Los Angeles building after the tattoos vanished. “I’ll deal with them.”

“You can’t do anything looking like that.” Martin undid his belt and slipped his trousers off. “Arthur, wipe away a bit of the circle and then go join Douglas in the cockpit.”

“I can’t just leave you out here, Skip.” Arthur’s foot inched toward the circle. “You might need my help.”

“Just do it.” He sighed. “Carolyn would kill me if anything happened to you. I’ll be joining you in a moment.”

Arthur swiped his foot through the circle and I almost fell on my face as the resistance I’d felt vanished. Martin handed me the trousers. They didn’t exactly fit, but I wasn’t naked any longer. Arthur handed me the book. I tried not to wrinkle my nose at the feeling of leathered human flesh in my palm.

“Good luck, Lindsey.” Martin gave me a pat on my good shoulder. “I’ll lock the door behind me.”

The air was starting to feel thicker. The back of the plane looked like it was in shadow. There was a flash of light and I found myself face to face with someone I hadn’t seen in a very long time.

“McDonald.” He didn’t look happy to see me. “I can’t believe you managed to get some random people to rescue your traitorous ass.”

“Marcus. I thought you were dead.” He had a scar on his throat I didn’t remember and his head seemed to tilt a bit to the left. I laughed. “Oh, that’s wonderful. You’re just as dead as I am.”

“Shut up.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you going to come back willingly or do we get to fight first?”

“If you think I’m going back there, you’re insane.” I held the book up. “I’ll make you a deal, Marcus. I’ll hand over the book if you and your bosses leave me alone for the rest of eternity. Otherwise I’m going to destroy it and then do my best to kill you all over again.” I held the book out in front of me and slowly began to bend the cover back until the stitching holding the pages began to snap.

“Wait.” Marcus looked like he wanted to take my head off and use it as a bowling ball. “Don’t ruin the book.” He closed his eyes as he murmured something in a language I didn’t recognize. “You’ve got a deal, McDonald. As a show of good faith, I’ve been instructed to leave the people on this plane alone. Hand it over.”

“Catch.” I tossed the book over to him.

Marcus made a few rude gestures in my direction before vanishing. The lights brightened and the air felt like it should again. I walked up to the cockpit door and knocked. “He’s gone. Everything’s fine.”

I stepped back as the door opened. Arthur came bounding out. Martin stayed just inside the door. He glanced at the trousers he’d loaned me. “Arthur’s going to see if he has a spare pair to loan you. I can’t be seen getting off of my plane without any trousers.”

“How long until we land?”

“We’ll be back in Fitton in another hour.” Martin pointed at the rows of empty seats. “Make yourself comfortable. I’m glad everything worked out.”

“Me too.” I sat in the first seat I came to. All things considered, that had gone far better than I’d hoped. I was finally free from Wolfram and Hart.


End file.
